The Press Release: Do TV and Newspaper Editors See Eye to Eye?

Public Relations Journal Vol. 5, No. 2, Spring 2011 ISSN 1942-4604 © 2011 Public Relations Society of America The Press Release: Do TV and Newspaper Editors See Eye to Eye? Reginald F. Moody In an effort to expand and compare results with a 2008 study of newspaper editors, this research asked the following: Do TV assignment editors have similar preferences for writing style in press releases as do their newspaper counterparts, or are they inclined to respond differently, owing to the demands of TV audiences and the characteristics of the broadcast medium? Results of this experiment indicate that TV assignment editors are just as likely as newspaper editors to use all or part of press releases written in either the inverted pyramid style or narrative style. However, the two have mixed opinions as to which writing style produces a more interesting and enjoyable, more informative, clearer and more understandable and more credible press release. The author discusses how public relations students and professionals can benefit from this disparity of response between TV assignment editors and newspaper editors in the acceptance or rejection of news releases based on writing style. The notion that newspaper editors are more likely to choose a press release written in a narrative style over one written in an inverted-pyramid style was mixed at best when viewed from the surface of an experiment conducted in 2008 of newspaper editors across the American heartland. Nonetheless, writing style was seen as having an unquestionable link to an editor’s assessment of certain press release characteristics, such as whether a release was found to be more interesting and enjoyable, more informative, clearer and more understandable and more credible. In the newspaper editor’s study, the narrative writing style was seen as providing those attributes much more effectively than the inverted pyramid writing style. In an effort to expand and compare results with the 2008 newspaper study, the following research asked the following: Do TV assignment editors have similar preferences for writing style in press releases as do their newspaper counterparts, or are they inclined to respond differently, owing to the demands of TV audiences and the characteristics of the broadcast medium? Although studies have tested the effects of writing style on certain types of groups, none has measured the effects of writing style on TV assignment editors. Understanding the intrinsic worth of one writing style over the other is important to public relations students if they are to gain a greater appreciation of the dynamics that shape press release acceptance in the electronic media. Such a study is also critical for public relations professionals who feel the clarity or the worth of the press releases they write may be at risk when utilizing either method. 1 Moody – Public Relations Journal – Vol. 5, No. 2, 2011 BACKGROUND This study is set against the theoretical framework of gatekeeping theory, first established by social psychologist Kurt Lewin (1947), and later applied to mass communication by several researchers (White, 1950; Bass, 1969; Gieber, 1964; McNelly, 1959; Dimmick, 1974). The major function of gatekeeping in news organizations is to reduce uncertainty about what is news and what is not (Dimmick, 1974). According to Shoemaker (1996): “Gatekeeping is the process by which countless messages are reduced to the few we are offered in our daily newspapers and television news programs. Gatekeeping is such an essential part of the news gathering and dissemination process because every potential news story cannot be gathered, and, from among those items gathered, they all cannot be disseminated.” The definition of gatekeeping proposed in this article relies heavily on the one proposed by Karine Barzilai-Nahon (2008), which conceptualizes gatekeeping as “the process of controlling information as it moves through a gate. Activities include selection, addition, withholding, display, channeling, shaping, manipulation, repetition, timing, localization, integration, disregard, and deletion of information.” According to Douglas McLeod (2009), the media do more than just provide a “conduit” for information. “They play an important gatekeeping role in determining the relative importance of events and issues by judging their potential impact on society” (McLeod, 2009). David Manning White’s study (1950) was one of the first investigations of the gatekeeping process. His investigation examined the decision-making process of a single newspaper editor over a period of a week and found that editor’s method to be highly subjective. White’s research was furthered by Gieber (1964), who introduced additional considerations into his analysis, such as the effects of work routines and the frenzy of meeting deadlines as a factor in the selection or rejection of press communications. McNelly’s research (1959) introduced the idea of multiple gatekeepers---starting with the newspaper reporter---to help explain an additional factor in the selection or rejection of news. Bass (1969) concurred, saying a distinction needed to be made between “news gatherers” (reporters) and “news processors” (editors). If stories were not reported, he said, they would never reach the editor for processing. The press release and public relations The field of public relations has become a significant and powerful industry, particularly in a day when scandal has become the order of the day. Starting with Ivey Lee and Edward Bernays, early pioneers of the field, the influences of the PR industry can be 2 The Press Release: Do TV and Newspaper Editors See Eye to Eye? – Public Relations Journal – Vol. 5, No. 2, 2011 seen everywhere. PR’s publicity function alone encompasses everything from traditional press conferences and press releases to an assortment of long-term, image-building activities. Driving the publicity function of public relations is the press release---a pseudo-news story that attempts to show an editor the news significance of an individual, event, service or product. The press release is one of the most important instruments for distributing information to society, and has become an essential “information subsidy” for all mass media, including television. TV’s ability to create awareness and capture the attention of viewers numbering in the millions, gives the medium enormous power to mold public opinion. Although the key to writing an effective press release for TV is to write a release that is clear, engaging, interesting and adhering to basic news values, other factors may play an equally and significant role. One factor is “writing style.” Writing styles have evolved in newspapers, radio and television, owing to the unique nature of each medium and to the manner the audience consumes each medium. By tradition, journalists compose news stories either in a straight-news approach (the inverted pyramid writing style) or in a narrative format (a storytelling style). Hence, the inverted pyramid writing style answers the questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. The narrative approach, in contrast, stresses settings, characters, plots, themes, climaxes, and scenes of a story. By practice, the inverted pyramid style is typically used for breaking news stories, while the narrative writing method is used for features and some soft news stories. Sometimes stories are written by combining facets from each style---the hybrid method. The systematic order of the inverted pyramid writing style has been described as a skillful and timesaving way of displaying information for readers (Grabner, 1984). The reporter writes a catchy lead and then organizes materials in descending order of importance. The editor can shorten the story without ever reading it by eliminating sentences from the bottom. The first paragraph of the story---the lead---is viewed as the summary of the story. The paragraphs which follow simply expand the lead (Mott, 1950). Although handy to readers who glimpse through stories, the inverted pyramid has been described as a hurdle to most readers. The newspaper industry’s inexhaustible dependence on the inverted pyramid style of writing makes it tiring for readers (Green, 1979). The style has also been depicted as an “unwieldy and bewildering way of writing a news story, since it has little to do with the way people communicate” (Boyer, 1976). What’s more, the inverted-pyramid style has been faulted with producing boredom (Lewis, 1994) and preventing readers from understanding what could be practical information (Thorndyke, 1979). Journalism written in the narrative style, however, introduces liveliness into the five W's by crafting an “experience” for the reader (Connery, 1992). Almost any monotonous but 3 Moody – Public Relations Journal – Vol. 5, No. 2, 2011 significant account can be re-energized by using a narrative writing style (Kramer, 2000). Narrative text is often said to be easier to manage and remember; it is basic to human communication (Farell, 1985). The narrative writing style, time and again, generates greater arousal and more positive reaction (Donohew, 1982). Narrative treatments trigger emotional responses and express drama in a personal sort of way (Beasley, 1998). Vare (2000) found that writers are ready to break free from inverted pyramids and are answering with unusually creative uses of the narrative approach. That said, the narrative format may have a greater influence in the way news stories are actually produced in today’s media environment, and preference for

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